20,000 Chicks Gassed To Death After Belgium Exporter Abandons Them On Airport Tarmac

Sad and senseless news from Belgium as WAN learns that 20,000 chicks were gassed over the weekend after their flight to the Democratic Republic of Congo was canceled on Saturday; leaving the poor babies cramped, crated, and suffering on the tarmac over an extremely hot weekend.

The gassing reportedly took place late on Sunday after the Belgium exporter who had arranged for the transport refused to return to claim the container.

According to Brigitte Borgmans, of Dierenwelzijn Vlaanderen, the agency in charge of animal welfare in Belgium’s Flemish region which has since filed an official report against the exporting firm, the animals had no food or water causing many to die by Sunday evening.

Meanwhile, a veterinarian who was dispatched to the scene to assess the situation made the controversial decision that the remaining chicks should be euthanized in order to shorten their suffering.

After the airport’s firefighting brigade refused to comply, local firefighters from the nearby town of Zaventem agreed to euthanize the chicks by sealing the container and pumping carbon dioxide into it.

As per Deutsche Welle, lawmakers and activists have been expressing their outrage today over the tragic occurrence which resulted in thousands of innocent lives being lost.

While lawmaker, Hermes Sanctorum, criticized the decision claiming that the live animals were being treated as any other Amazon shipment, animal rights activist, Michel Vandenbosch, unfathomably praised the airport firefighters for their decision calling it “a small but beautiful act of resistance.”

There is nothing beautiful about this situation which should have never occurred in the first place. Animals are not meant to be transported like non-living and feeling objects, nor should they ever be exploited for food, greed or profit.

The Belgium exporter must be held accountable and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law and an urgent review of transportation policy relating to live animals must take place immediately.

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